Tom Crean Proactively Suspends Devin Dumes for Throwing Elbows

I’m starting to really like this Tom Crean guy. As if building up Marquette into a powerhouse wasn’t enough, he came to Indiana where he stripped the program naked to clean it up, getting rid of their top returning talent and scholarship players in the process. The team hasn’t been successful on the court this year but you get the sense they’re headed in the right direction over the longterm. At the least, he’s building the program the right way. Another sign of Crean’s ethics was his indefinite suspension of Indiana’s top scorer this season, Devin Dumes, for throwing elbows against Michigan State, one that resulted in a flagrant foul and subsequent ejection. Here’s the elbow in case you want to take a look:

It also wasn’t an isolated incident for Dumes that game — Inside the Hall has the details:

* 21 seconds into the game, Dumes is whistled for a foul.

* At the 17:32 mark of the first half, he’s slapped with his second foul and heads to the bench.

* Re-enters at the 12:44 mark and by the 12:03 mark, he’s whistled for his third foul (offensive).

* With 16:31 remaining in the second half, a replay shows that Dumes elbowed Michigan State forward Goran Suton in the crotch during transition. The officials reviewed the play and decided to allow him to remain in the game, but ESPN announcers later revealed that they didn’t have access to the one replay that clearly showed the elbow was intentional.

* At the 2:10 mark, Dumes was hit by an inadvertent elbow by Michigan State forward Tom Herzog and retaliated with an elbow of his own. It was his fifth foul and also a flagrant and Dumes was ejected.

The Big Ten says they didn’t approve of that type of behavior, but I still think it’s admirable that Crean was proactive in the situation, taking matters into his hands. You could say it’s easy to do that when your team stinks and it’s not on the bubble for the tourney or out of the Big Ten title hunt, but I still say as long as you’re getting paid to win, suspending a top player is tough to do.